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Pasty Prices - Something to Chew Over

Geoff Riley

19th November 2011

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I am trying to get my head around this example of pasty prices that I encountered at Waterloo Station on Tuesday night. The vendor is selling a large pasty for £3.90 and “The Big One” for £4.00 - a difference of just ten pence? Why not charge more? Or at least cut the price of the large pasty to something like £3.30 to encourage people to pay the £4.00 option? Am I missing something here?

I asked the guy running the concession “what is the difference between the large pasty and the big one?” His cogent reply put me right “The big one is bigger!” I bought the large pasty because as far as I can see, there is no difference in size.

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Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for nearly forty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD and Revision conferences in the UK and overseas.